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the Soviets wanted to only shoot down what they knew to be a
passenger plane. They fired no warning shots nor gave any signal for
the plane to land. The video became a key factor in what Secretary of
State George Shultz promised in a memo to President Reagan would be
a massive public relations effort “to exploit the incident.” The intent
was to link the incident to nuclear disarmament issues. Raising
concerns about Soviet integrity could do serious damage to the
Kremlin’s peace campaign to dissuade NATO allies in Europe from
placing upgraded American nuclear weapons on their soil. 403
The film eventually led to the Security Council’s condemnation of the
Soviet action. Snyder’s conclusion was that
The video tape was powerful, effective, and wrong...Skilled technicians
of today’s multiplying forms of information make it easier to reach, and
bamboozle, the public instantly...Technology may well spawn
disinformation more insidious than any we have yet known. What
replaces 1980s-style disinformation in the future may make it seem
wholesome by comparison, and the press must be ever more vigilant. 404
Technical devices thus produced a dramatic manipulation on an
international and strategic level. The inability to identify a manipulation at the
strategic level could be catastrophic for any nation in both the short- and longterms
because totally unforeseen consequences could result. A computer hacker
can manipulate financial records, credit card listings, and other computer-stored
data to suit his own interests. In fact, a computer operator in St. Petersburg,
Russia, hacked his way into a Citicorp Bank of America account and
transferred $10 million before being caught.
Allowing new and faster methods for groups to mobilize public opinion
and coordinate actions, cellular phones, satellite TV, the Internet, and hand-held
fax machines are some of the new tools or weapons that have energized the
manipulation threat. The ammunition or bullets are provided by disinformation
devices or items such as computer viruses, electronic warfare assets, or
electromagnetic pulses which can destroy or disable a system. Disabling the
satellite connections that allow many of these tools to operate is hardly an
option for dealing with the manipulation threat because these connections are
tied to the communication capabilities of major states. Other means to deal with
the use of these assets must be developed. It is especially important to
403 Alvin Snyder, “Flight 007: The Rest of the Story,” The Washington Post, 1
September 1996.
404 Ibid.
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